Continental anesthesia in Chicago?

[ether]

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Hi all,

Anyone in and around Chicago knows the less then sterling reputation of Continental anesthesia as an employer. I am considering working there and know that they rotate their docs to different hospitals.

I was just wondering how many hospitals this group works out of? The names would be useful as I am trying to see if I want to even make the attempt at commuting.

I know they work out of: St. Francis and Resurrrection Medical Center for sure.

p.s. I do know the bad stories from this group, so would appreciate just the answer to the above question. Thanks.

 

[belle007]

I interviewed with them. There isn't a partnership track, so they are making money off of you. They are pretty upfront about numbers and hospitals when you interview...so go ahead and do it and get some answers. A lot of people join when they know they won't be in chicago for an extended time (spouse in residency/fellowship, etc), as they pay your tail.

 

[karizma098]

Not worth it. they make serious money off your back , which is okay from a business aspect i guess, but it's known to be disorganized, and honestly doesn't pay all that great either.

I'm only a med student but my old man's group interviewed a few people that were trying to leave continental, and a few others who interviewed there this season and it's considered a joke and a slaveship. There are better jobs to be had.

 

[Metalblade]

They work out of

Weiss in Lakeview
Mercy in Chinatown
MacNeal in Berwyn

I think they have a couple of more contracts but I can't remember the names offhand. You'll have to interview with them to get the rest; they wont tell you over the phone.

 

[shaz8901]

Hey guys,
For all you people that want to know about continental anesthesia I can give you first hand experience as I have many friends in the group. Overall I would have to say they are negative and described as slavehood. They way they bill is by having you bill as an independent contractor for your cases and the group collects the money from all the members and puts it into a pot. They then salary you based on the hours you work. The guys that work more make more money and the guys that work less make less. Sounds fair right? But here is the kicker. The salary you receive is considerable less than you bill. You might be billing 500k-700k but you pull in 250k, and the extra money goes to the corporate owners of the group who become rich off the hard working physicians who did it for the love of the profession instead of the love the dollar. How do they do this even though it sounds fair. Well they say to the young anesthesiologist joining the group the average anesthesiologist makes 250k and works about 65 hours. So you must work that much to get 250k. Sounds great when you coming out as a resident but like I said the amount your working your actually billing 500-700k. You basically will be a perpetual resident and there is no growth whatsoever. The people working there are always pissed off cuz they are working so much and taking so much call. The truth is they don't need to work that hard, they just need to understand the system. Im not saying work for the money but nobody should profit out of your work as a physician. You should just cover your overhead to make sure the place runs but all the extra money should go to you, not some fat cat anesthesiologist in a suit.
Another place that does this system is the Rush anesthesia group. This place instead of being run by a few greedy anesthesiologists in the corporate group is run by one greedy anesthesiologist (you can look him up he is filthy rich) who owns the whole group and salaries out his attendings regardless of how much they work or what they do. You start out at 275k and the most senior attendings will make 350k. There is no growth at all and you will never see the money you bill for. That one guy collects off everyone. How does he pull this off since he doesn't have the hourly based rate anesthesia like continental which dupes people in sounding fair. Well the attendings there have 100% supervision and do no cases by themselves. The residents and CRNA do everything. So basically he tailors to the most laziest anesthesiologists. If you don't believe me ask any Rush resident, they will say they are the most overworked and least educated residents because there attendings become so lazy and out of touch not doing any cases at all. They also have a huge turnover of young well educated anesthesiologists who initially join the group out of fellowship wanting to go to an academic center in Chicago excited to teach. They realize they are better than the lazy anesthesiologist around them and have a conscience and decide not to be a slave owner of the residents so they leave.
Just be warned when you join groups like this. Please look up how anesthesia bills and make sure some greedy bushiness man is not screwing you over simply because you didn't go into anesthesia for money and never researched how billing works in anesthesia. If you have any questions I'm free and open to answer. I know anesthesia billing well. There are plenty of congenial anesthesia groups in Chicago so don't be fooled into working for the wrong ones.

 

[chmd]

MacNeil is now run by an AMC. Weiss is already or very shortly will be. I interviewed with the AMC at MacNeil and they actually had a white board with anesthesiologists' names on it followed by "terminated" or whatever designation was appropriate. This was visible to me as an applicant in the secretaries office! Also the md manager who interviewed my was super slimy.

My comment to the above poster is that 250k for 60-65 hours per week is not appealing, even to new grads, unless it's a partnership track (2-3 years max) for a great group (location or money). Don't settle for gargabe.

 

[Baller MD]

MacNeil is now run by an AMC. Weiss is already or very shortly will be. I interviewed with the AMC at MacNeil and they actually had a white board with anesthesiologists' names on it followed by "terminated" or whatever designation was appropriate. This was visible to me as an applicant in the secretaries office! Also the md manager who interviewed my was super slimy.

My comment to the above poster is that 250k for 60-65 hours per week is not appealing, even to new grads, unless it's a partnership track (2-3 years max) for a great group (location or money). Don't settle for gargabe.

Wow, that is absolute garbage.

 

[aneftp]

People need to understand billing and payer mix.

If your ratio of Medicare (say 50%) plus 15% Medicaid. And only 35% private. Even if you did your own billing and paid the billing company 6% cut.

Assume you take 6 weeks off. You are talking maybe grossing 400k max and who knows the hours you are working. Could be 55-60 hours. And no benefits.

Whereas if you work at surgery center 35 hours a week. Yet payer mix is 30% Medicare. 70% private. You can easily gross 700K if you do your own billing.

Fee for service is feast or famine. And most importantly depends on payer mix.

Of course this depends if you get any group subsidy. Many big city highly desirable groups don't get any subsidy.

 

[aneftp]

Wow, that is absolute garbage.

I agree. Crnas won't work for those wages either.

Maybe MDs are getting dumber. Better to find 3 day a week job for $150k outpatient than supplement per diem at random places. Less work. Same pay after supplementing.

 

[shaz8901]

It doesn't matter CRNA or anesthesiolgist both bill and get reimbursed the same in medicare and medicaid

 

[shaz8901]

People need to understand billing and payer mix.

If your ratio of Medicare (say 50%) plus 15% Medicaid. And only 35% private. Even if you did your own billing and paid the billing company 6% cut.

Assume you take 6 weeks off. You are talking maybe grossing 400k max and who knows the hours you are working. Could be 55-60 hours. And no benefits.

Whereas if you work at surgery center 35 hours a week. Yet payer mix is 30% Medicare. 70% private. You can easily gross 700K if you do your own billing.

Fee for service is feast or famine. And most importantly depends on payer mix.

Of course this depends if you get any group subsidy. Many big city highly desirable groups don't get any subsidy.

This is exactly true, payer mix is important. In terrible payer mix areas (too much medicare/medicaid) you have to join groups because thanks to Obamacare's increase of medicare and medicaid docs will have more pressure to work heavy number of hours or do increased procedures or see a high number of patients. Good physicians know that being overworked will lead to bad patient care and that's why we became physicians in the first place. They thus join hospital owned groups for better patient care because they don't have to focus on being profitable.
However, the groups I listed above are private groups (not owned by hospital) that are run by fellow anesthesiologists and are profitable. They still offer no partnership tracks and continue to overwork their anesthesia employees. They do this because they are in a desirable places like Chicago. For example at Rush anesthesia a few years back before the new hospital opened up a group of the 30+ anesthesia employees got wise to what the owner was doing and confronted him about his unfair business practices. He basically said to them I will fire you all in a second and you are all replaceable because I can find so many others wanting to come to Chicago. So basically because you want to be in a desirable area like Chicago you must accept my slavery business tactics because I own the contract with the hospital. Here is the thing most of these anesthesiologists stopped fighting because they got families, mortgages, ext. that need them to be stable however some of these anesthesiologists left and they began talking to others and Rush has gotten the bad name it deserves due to this guy. Now since the new hospital got made this place is scrambling to find new attendings and nobody is willing to accept their offer. This is what happens, this is a great country of checks and balances and dictators like this will hopefully eventually go down. The point I am trying to make is to be weary in joining groups that are private groups (thus relatively profitable) but yet do not offer partnership tracks which inherently offer transparency in all practices including billing. The only way places like this go down is if enough people refuse to join these groups. What happens is the hospital eventually notices because the OR's continue to get delayed or cases cancelled or bad patient outcomes and they decide to stop the contract with the private group. Better more well run groups then take over and eventually this dictatorships will stop in our field. I encourage a lot of young grads or older grads not jaded to form their own fair and congenial partnership groups. Its a lot easier than it appears to make a partnership. The more people that do this the less feeding on honest and fair anesthesiologists these greedy groups have and eventually they will fade. I say always provide good anesthesia care but demand fair treatment and don't settle for less because it is a vicious cycle if you do.
As a side note I am not saying join hospital run groups either because they are problems with this too (you are officially a tech and not a physician when a hospital owns you). However, that is for another discussion. Questions comments?

 

[BuzzPhreed]

(sic) The only way places like this go down is if enough people refuse to join these groups. What happens is the hospital eventually notices because the OR's continue to get delayed or cases cancelled or bad patient outcomes and they decide to stop the contract with the private group. Better more well run groups then take over and eventually this dictatorships will stop in our field. I encourage a lot of young grads or older grads not jaded to form their own fair and congenial partnership groups. Its a lot easier than it appears to make a partnership. The more people that do this the less feeding on honest and fair anesthesiologists these greedy groups have and eventually they will fade. I say always provide good anesthesia care but demand fair treatment and don't settle for less because it is a vicious cycle if you do.

Hear hear!

As a side note I am not saying join hospital run groups either because they are problems with this too (you are officially a tech and not a physician when a hospital owns you).

Not always true. At least not in my case. I have full say and support from administration. I am far from considered being just a "tech". And if I ever heard anyone at the hospital saying they "owned" me they would have a rude fucking awakening. That's all I'll say about that.

 

[shaz8901]

Hear hear!



Not always true. At least not in my case. I have full say and support from administration. I am far from considered being just a "tech". And if I ever heard anyone at the hospital saying they "owned" me they would have a rude fucking awakening. That's all I'll say about that.

True not always, but it can happen. Why? because when there is a disagreement between a surgeon and an anesthesiologist, the hospital has a very important reason to support the surgeon; they bring in the patient. They can easily take their patient to another hospital if you piss them off. Never forget we are consultants. But again this reiterates my point; If we stick together and instead of looking at our own interests, make decisions based on the interests of our profession then things will actually change. Partnership tracks are the fairest options because our field is unfortunately filled with guys willing to screw over their fellow colleagues for money. If we continue this behavior our outlook looks bleak.